How to deal with feeling left out at work? – 8 Amazing Ways

Feeling left out at work is incredibly frustrating and discouraging for employees. Understandably, you do not need very close and personal relationships with your coworkers to work satisfactorily, but if you consistently face isolation, exclusive behavior, and neglecting attitudes of your boss or coworkers, it affects your performance and job satisfaction.

Feeling left out at work and alienation in the workplace causes employees to feel disrespected, unvalued, and unimportant.

Think about it yourself; how would you feel left out at work by the boss? Is it acceptable that you are not being informed about a particular event or update? How would you feel if your coworkers stopped talking you arrived? It not only leaves you wondering that your coworkers do not like you, but it will also affect your mental health and job satisfaction. These happenings are considered as “Workplace Ostracism.”

What is workplace ostracism?

“Workplace ostracism” pattern of being excluded, ignored and disengaged at work. No one feels being left out at work by the boss or coworkers. A person who experiences workplace ostracism goes through anger, shame, disrespect, and humiliation by the team members. The matter of feeling left out at work is increasing in the workplace and becoming a serious problem similar to gender discrimination, bias and preferences, harassment, and alienation in the workplace.

Researches demonstrate that almost 70% of professionals face social isolation, feel left out at work, and experience some degree of exclusion in the previous six months, while professionals who experience harassment or bullying are only 49%.

So, by comparing the outcomes, it is clear that the rate of workplace ostracism or employees feeling left out at work is higher than other workplace issues. Workplace ostracism can be intentional or unintentional. When ostracism is intentional, it can have malicious aspects of disrespect, judgment, criticism, mocking, personal grudges, etc.

Unintentional ostracism means that your coworkers are not excluding you or making you feel alone at work purposefully or by intent. They might be unaware that you are feeling left out at work. Maybe they have a higher understanding of each other as compared to you. Maybe the employees who are feeling left out at work are being over-sensitive and feeling left out at work due to minor things.

What are the effects of feeling left out at work?

Having the feeling of being alone at work or feeling left out at work is not easy and disheartens the employees.

A study on workplace ostracism shows that the people who are the victims of workplace ostracism and are feeling left out at work are more likely to quit their job as compared to the people who suffer workplace harassment.

Many studies and research show that employees experience powerlessness and meaninglessness because of feeling left out at work. It leads to a decline in their performance rate and effectiveness of work.

Another research was conducted on the Effects of Workplace Ostracism. Also, several studies show that workplace ostracism generates psychological reactions of employees, including frustration, emotional exhaustion, mental disturbance, low satisfaction the job, and high work tension. Workplace ostracism also leaves a bad and negative impact on employees’ behavior and job performance.

Therefore, as a conclusion, it is the accountability of a team manager to develop a team atmosphere at work and know what makes a happy employee and how to make people feel comfortable at work? It is necessary to provide a comfort zone and appreciating environment to the employees for effective outcomes.

Moreover, team members and coworkers should also try to engage and approach each other and develop a friendly environment where everyone feels comfortable, happy, and satisfied.

What are the causes of feeling left out at work?

It is unacceptable or unbearable to feel alone at work and have no one to share your ideas and plans with someone. If you are feeling left out at work, it can have several different reasons and aspects. For instance, You feel embarrassed when a group of your workers start bursting into laughter while looking at you. It is awkward when you step into the workplace, and suddenly everyone goes silent.

Some team-building events or celebrations are organized after work that excludes you. The response of your coworkers is outrageous when they are teamed up with you and don’t want to work with you on a client or a project. No one cares for how comfortable are you, or are you going through any problem or not? You can also be feeling left out at work if your voice and ideas are not given value in a discussion or meeting. All these are the causes of feeling left out at work.

How to deal with feeling left out at work?

Here are some ways to overcome feeling left out at work and make the workplace comfortable for you.

1. Find some reliable relationships

If you are feeling left out at work, then you should develop some good work relations with the people who are there for you to support you in your work. Developing work relations does not mean that you have to become best friends or close to them, but at least a good professional relationship that helps you grow assists you to learn new skills and understand the workplace culture. It is beneficial for you to have a support system behind your back and share ideas.

The research’s conclusions and findings indicate that the positive effects of high-quality workplace relationships include a lower level of job stress, higher commitment, and increased awareness of social impact.

It is challenging to identify the right person if you are new to that place. Give it some time, analyze the behaviors and approach others to engage them. It is important to have a couple of good allies to stop feeling left out at work.

2. Maintain a good and friendly attitude

Do you think that why you are feeling isolated at work? Or why are your coworkers excluding and avoiding you? Before blaming anyone else, firstly, check out yourself, your behavior, and your attitude towards them.

Even though you have a comfortable job, if your behavior is irrational and ludicrous to others, no one wants to be with you. If you are always talking in a high tone and get hot-tempered at every little thing, how can others get attracted to you? When anyone comes to you and wants to get engaged in a discussion or conversation, your behavior is ignorant and arrogant, making others feel uninterested.

Then, how can others keep a friendly attitude when you are not responding pleasingly. Undoubtedly, they will stay away from you, making you feel left out at work.
Therefore, if you want to stop feeling left out at work, engage with your coworkers, behave nicely, sympathize with them when needed, and try to develop friendly relations.

3. Understand the workplace culture

If you are feeling left out at work, it may be because you have not understood the workplace culture yet. Try to examine the do’s and do not’s of your workplace, behaviors of your coworkers, working environment, and working criteria. ,

According to Gina Lau, open and honest feedback is our secret weapon for creating the best culture.

At the start of your job, you might feel unfit in the workplace, and it is not understandable why you feel uncomfortable here? So learn and comprehend your workplace culture. Observe everything when all team members take a break? When do they share ideas? when are they focusing on their works? What are their working hours? All these things help you get connected to them at the right time. After you recognize what workplace culture this organization holds? You do not feel alone at work anymore.

4. Attend the events and celebrations

One of the best ways to deal with and overcome feeling left out at work is by attending social events, office parties, celebrations, and ceremonies. Suppose you are invited to social gatherings two to three times, but you have not attended that event, and you frequently miss the celebrations and parties with coworkers. By doing this, you seem to be an uninterested and apathetic person. That is why they exclude you or keep you listless based on your past behaviors.

According to Denis Waitley, an American writer, and consultant, Paying value to others is the greatest communication skill.

Learn to socialize, attend all the parties you are invited to and communicate as much as possible to stop feeling left out at work.

When others notice that you want to engage with them and take an active interest, they will also endeavor to extend the associations. Improve the communication skills that help you speak from your heart and take the initiative to start a conversation. This will be beneficial for you to get engaged with more coworkers, and you can easily stop feeling left out at work.

5. Plan social gathering events by yourself

Feeling left out of work? How can you get engaged with your coworkers? Do your coworkers leave you feeling isolated at work? Then, Have you ever thought about arranging and organizing an event for your coworkers? If not, it can help you to deal with this problem.

The feeling of being excluded at work can affect us in many ways, and it can give rise to the signs of low self-esteem in your personality. Therefore, to stop feeling left out at work, you need to be more active in your social schedule. Join and host little gatherings and invite your team members to develop good professional relationships.

In your break hour or lunch runs you can ask your colleagues to go together. Even after finishing your working hours, you can invite them for a cup of coffee, and it can help you find supporting colleagues in the workplace.

6. Take it as a blessing and be grateful

What makes a happy employee? Good and comfortable job, getting appreciation for achievements, and good relationships. But if you are feeling left out at work, it is a blessing for you in one aspect. As it is the time of your growth and career development, you have to focus and give all the attention to your work. If you have a bundle of good friends at work, most of the time is spent discussing and engaging with them.

You can not entirely focus on your work; therefore, it is preferred to develop barely work relationships at the workplace.

Moreover, if you have toxic people in your teammates or surroundings at work, it is good for you that you are away from them. Toxic people can make your life disturbed and full of stress that affects your career achievements. So, therefore stop feeling left out at work and find your happiness in yourself.

7. Make yourself indispensable

If you feel socially excluded at the workplace, you can rectify this condition. Concentrate entirely on improving your skills and aptitudes. It is a verity that others want to get close to you if you have a good skill or beneficial for them in any aspect. So, therefore, develop your character and make yourself unavoidable so that no one can exclude you.

According to Jim Rohn, an American author and motivational speaker, Learn to hide your needs and show your skills.

Others will surely come to you and want to connect if your position is strong and their career-based intentions are satisfied because of you. If you are feeling left out at work and, due to your introverted nature, unable to communicate more, it is the best way to engage with others by making yourself crucial for your coworkers.

8. Find out a suitable fit for you

Once you have identified that, why are you feeling left out at work? Start taking action and getting involved with your team. But if still after all your efforts and struggles, they remain irresponsive, their behavior is the same as earlier, and still not involving you in team discussions, it is the time to make a strong decision.
Start looking for a comfortable job where you stay satisfied, valued, and respected. Find out the best fit for you and move on in your life to attain a successful career. No one respects you until you realize your importance and give respect to yourself.

FAQs

Some frequently asked questions are mentioned below regarding employees feeling left out at work and not considering this place suitable.

Q: What to do when your coworkers exclude you?

If you are feeling left out at work, it can have several causes. Maybe they are feeling hesitant to talk to you or include you in any discussion. You might seem to be an arrogant person, so that’s why they are maintaining a distance. Therefore, reach out to them and initiate a conversation. Keep your behavior friendly and down to earth. If still, they exclude you, stay away and be happy with yourself.

Q: Why am I being singled out at work?

You might be feeling isolated at work because you are a new hire and others don’t know about you sufficiently. Your behavior might be rude and arrogant; therefore, other workers avoid you. It can also happen that your team does not have adequate understanding and a team working environment.

Q: How do you explain feeling left out?

Feeling left out means not include in a particular thing. You can understand it by supposing that your team members plan to go for dinner after work, and they exclude you from this plan. Or your group of friends is planning to watch a movie together without even telling you. All these feelings of being excluded from something are the feelings of being left out.

Q: How do you know you’re not valued at work?

You are working hard but still never get a proper admiration or appreciation, stay underpaid for a long time, have no raise in wage or lack of promotion while others are attaining it, being insulted in front of whole staff for a minor mistake, or getting no credit for your work, all these are the signs that you are not being valued at work.

Q: What is the phobia of being left out?

The phobia of being left out, also called FOMO, “Fear of missing out,” is the fear or feeling one has when he is kept unaware of any specific information, events, or celebrations. It is a fear that you would miss out on any social gatherings or social interactions.

Final words

Feeling left out at work can demolish the passion of working hard in an organization and make employees feel disrespected, ill-treated, insignificant, and excluded. It leaves a severe impact on job performance, working capability, office relationships, productivity, and mental satisfaction. Therefore, try to learn how to make people feel comfortable at work to work satisfactorily and stop feeling left out at work.